The digital thread is a single source of data truth creating consistency, collaboration, and alignment across functions by real-time data synchronization of related upstream and downstream derivative information. This scalable common set of democratized data enables enterprise-wide accessibility and continuity across products, processes, and people (PTC). In simpler terms, the digital thread is the combination of data from across the lifecycle of a product. It brings homogeneity across product data along its business processes. The typical path along the digital thread follows its design inception through engineering and product lifecycle management, manufacturing instructions, supply chain management, service histories and customer events.

The digital thread is a necessary piece of creating a digital twin. Digital twins take in the data that comes from a real, physical thing’s digital thread and create a digital representation of that data. Data from the digital thread can then be accessed using that digital twin.

Now, let’s see some of the advantages of digital twins.